Talat calls for ELAM to be banned

Talat calls for ELAM to be banned

Leader of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and former TRNC president Mehmet Ali Talat, has called on the Greek Cypriot side to shut down ultra-nationalist party ELAM. Speaking on a radio broadcast, he evaluated the attacks against Turkish Cypriots by ELAM and the progress of the Cyprus negotiations.

Talat stated that in order for the negotiations to come to a conclusion, alienation, hatred and racist thinking must be put to an end and laws must be put in place to aid this process.

He recalled that ELAM had, in the past, attempted to silence him as well and added that the organization must be shut down and punished heavily. Talat pointed out that the establishment of ELAM should never have been permitted in the first place. [ELAM became an official political party in the South in 2011. The party was an offshoot of the Greek ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party. Editor’s note]

Talat also referred to rumours that the South Cyprus police did not react while the Turkish Cypriots were under attack and said that the police must be better supervised and should be confronted on the issue.

“We will solve the Cyprus problem and we will live together”, Talat said adding that the concerns of the Turkish Cypriots will be increased if these kinds of incidents take place while efforts to find a political settlement between the two communities is under way .

Replying to a question Talat said that he is not sure if the Greek Cypriot administration is sincere as regards the solution of the Cyprus problem. “I do not know, I want to believe it, I want to believe that there is hope for a solution, but unfortunately I cannot be sure”, he stated.

Finally, referring to the issue of guarantees, Talat said that it is an issue that interests not only the two sides in Cyprus but also Turkey, Greece and the UK. He added that an international decision must be taken for abolishing the guarantees in Cyprus. However, he said that 95% of the Turkish Cypriots want to keep the guarantee system in place.